What started as friendly competition between friends 15 years ago has now grown into one of Boulder locals’ favorite city pastimes: July’s annual Tube to Work Day.
On Friday, 400 tubers lined Boulder Creek at Eben G. Fine park before departing downstream. Several donned costumes and added a playful twist to “business attire.”
At Central Park, coffee, bagels and music awaited the tubers. And, eventually, their offices did too.
Plenty of tubers planned ahead and brought a change of clothes. Some, however, said that they usually head straight to work sopping wet.
Greta Koenig recently graduated from the University of Colorado. She currently works on campus as a temporary lab assistant. While she’s not a regular tuber, she showed up Friday morning at 8 wearing safety goggles and what she calls her “festive” lab coat. The real one stays at work.
“It definitely brings out the culture of Boulder — all the crazy people, the costumes and just the fun vibes,” Koenig said.
To prepare for the float, most participants left their work supplies in their office overnight, so as not to dampen the mood — or their computers. But, a few carried now defunct devices as props.
Jeff Kagan, the event’s co-founder, first tried in 2008 to see if he could get to his office in downtown Boulder without the use of fossil fuels.
The first four years of attempts were much smaller than Friday’s event. It was just him and his friend Andy Gruel.
Since then, Kagan’s been repeating the feat every summer with the whole city — or at least, whoever’s up for the task.
Before tubers took off, Kagan led what he calls “the creed.”
“Boulder's got the rep for having a pretty high cost of living. And, while that may be true, I am pleased and proud to tell you that today, inflation in the city of Boulder has never been higher,” Kagan joked during his signature speech.
This year is the first time Kagan wasn’t handling all the event details or the process to acquire the city permits. He’s still grateful for Boulder’s support as well as the help from rescue volunteers who were stationed along the creek.
For Kagan and several Boulder locals, this year’s event was a success.
“Today, we created the world's greatest traffic jam,” Kagan said.
